Offshore moorings, whether for buoys or floating marine installations, are typically required to allow significant vertical and horizontal motions of the surface buoy, since the buoys are designed with sufficient buoyancy to follow the contours of the ocean waves which can be 30 ft or higher in storms depending on location. The wave-generated buoy (or ship) motions are known as heave and surge (vertical and horizontal motions, respectively). A sensor, for instance a hydrophone with its surrounding cage, connected to the surface buoy with a taut mooring cable will be rapidly lifted, lowered, and simultaneously more slowly oscillated sideways due to the constantly changing position of the contour of the passing by ocean waves, which the buoy is forced to follow. In particular, the heave and drop motion can be quite rapid, reaching speeds of 1 to 1.5 meters/second (3 to 5 ft/second). This motion can lead to inconsistent operation of the device, and the communications within the hose may be subject to intermittent or permanent failure.
Demands for faster communication, additional communication channels, and more power are driving the need to construct stretchable hoses which may be structurally adapted to address these needs. Furthermore, many of these communication and power demands are also linked to increased load bearing needs. For example, buoys comprising meteorological sensors, communication systems, solar devices, water instruments, etc. are often substantially heavier and apply larger tensile loads on the attached hose moorings.
Stretch hoses which may stretch up to 300 percent of their original resting length were developed to address many of the issues described above. Some of these hoses/moorings even featured embedded electrical conductors to allow signal transfer through the hose. The invention described herein provides an advancement in stretchable hose technology with improved extension length, strength capacity, and fatigue life in addition to the capability to carry high speed data and high power.